Figure 7.

Wild-type cultured neurons overexpressing a constitutively active CaN construct, CaNCA, develop abnormal morphology that is a phenocopy of the Aβ effect. Overexpression of CaNCA, but not CaNwt or vector control, into wild-type cultures induces dendritic dystrophies (A, B; arrows indicated local swelling of dendrites), simplification of dendritic arborization (C, D), and spine loss (E, F). Neurons expressing CaNCA displayed significantly more neurons with dendritic dystrophies, simplified dendritic complexity, and spine loss than either CaNwt or vector-expressing neurons. *p < 0.05; *p < 0.05 in D (CaNwt vs CaNCA). Data are mean ± SD from three independent experiments, each in triplicate.